Jasper's Elevator Addiction Painting

2024
(Painting)
Acrylic paint, pencil, & ink
11" x 14"

This is a story about a man and his sole remaining friend. Jasper’s existence in the Twilight Zone had left him stranded with just one confidant, his hand knit Octopus “Tank”. Tank warned him this would happen. The zone’s cursed elevator is addictive and it’s hold on them was now unbreakable. 

What did it want?  

Jasper & Tank had just witnessed what seemed to be a dream, but maybe it was something else all together. The birthday party was mundane. There was a plastic wiffle ball set that 4 year old Stephen Davis strangled. He was trying to hit his new ball over and over. Jasper watched from afar as his descendant struggled to connect the bat to the ball. The little boy was beside himself almost in tears. 

Tank was amused by the scene, but he just wanted to be draped in the perfectly crisp looking 1980’s lawn chair. No one was occupying it, and it sat empty, calling to him. Tank just wanted a rest. Jasper was afraid he might be seen if he did his friend’s bidding, but Tank insisted. 

So he laid his friend down on the chair, and Tank splayed out in it lifelessly. 

But, only for a second. For they were not supposed to interact with their visions. It was against the rules.

The zone’s elevator door immediately opened leaving a void of air to be sucked inside. The party guests ignored the magnificent manifestation. Jasper and Tank were, yet again, engulfed in this elevator to hell. 

The elevator was angry and took Tank’s bleeding heart as a sacrifice. It was a slow agonizing  scene. The beating heart was being forced out through Tank’s underbelly web. Ripping and tearing the whole time, creating a bloody mess.

Tank’s heart is actually a pinecone from Australia. Jasper’s girlfriend Liv had found it in her pappy’s workshop and inserted it at Tank’s conception. Maybe that’s where everything went wrong. Maybe that was the beginning of the elevator. Jasper didn’t know, and stood there shocked, grasping the still dripping heart.